Lighting for a 29 gallon...satellite fixture

[tropicfishman]

Hey everyone! I have a question regarding lighting on a 29 gallon tank. I mainly want some more lighting to kinda brighten the tank up, it seems dark with its 20 watt stock fixture. I was looking at the 65 watt satellite fixture for 29 gallon tank. The only four questions I have are these:

1. Do I need to go ahead and buy one of those full glass tops for my tank if I buy the light setup?

2. will the change form 20 watts to 65 watts have any adverse affects on my tank or fish? such as algea blooms, stress anything weird like that?

3. if I get the glass top and light setup do I need some kind of mounting legs to prop the light up and off the glass top itself?

4. I do have low light plants ( asian ambulia, hygro, rotola indica, anubias, swords, crypt wedettii, and what I think is green fix tail ) at this time I DO NOT use CO2 injection and can't afford it honestly. will this hurt my plants switching to higher wattage without CO2? I do run 2 airstones, and two powerheads constantly if that makes a difference.

Thanks to anyone who reads this or responds

 

[black hills tj]

I have the same exact setup you are talking about...nearly. I have a 29g tank that used to have a 20w bulb in the stock fixture. I then upgraded to this:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=9871&N=2004+113345

24" 65w Compact Fluorescent. It does not reach the length of my tank, but I just set it on the glass that runs across the back on the old "hood" if you will. Works fine No known adverse affects on the fish. I love it. I can get pics if you'd like.

 

[LandGhoti]

1. You don't NEED the glass top, but it's much less cluttered with one.

2. No adverse change to the fish, but you may have more of an algae issue, depending on how long you leave the lights on.

3. You would not need mounting legs if you got the glass top; I have a glass top with a 24" 65W CF fixture that sits directly on top of the glass.

4. With your current setup, you don't need CO2. If you do switch lights, you would not necessarily need it since you would only be at 2.2 wpg. I have a 29-gal also and do not have CO2, but I have started dosing Excel to get some CO2 in there.

HTH.

 

[rkilling1]

4. With your current setup, you don't need CO2. If you do switch lights, you would not necessarily need it since you would only be at 2.2 wpg. I have a 29-gal also and do not have CO2, but I have started dosing Excel to get some CO2 in there.

I just wanted to point out that we are talking about a CF fixture here. CF puts out more light then a NO of the same wattage, so the WPG rule really doesn't account for this. A CF fixture puts out roughly 135% more light as compared to a NO T-12. If you take that into account, then he is looking at around 3 WPG.

If the tank is heavily planted, then there may not be a need to add CO2, but I would look into it in the near future. (maybe sooner then later)

 

[tropicfishman]

I'm going to do and just play it by ear lol if the plants start l9ooking liek they need CO2 I'll get the money somehow and buy it. I dunno wether to get he 24 inch or 30 inch setup though lol thanks for all the info folks!